Featured Speakers

Jun Rekimoto
The University of Tokyo and Sony Computer Science Laboratories

Enhanced Realities
As the wave of ubiquitous computing rapidly penetrates our everyday lives, the focus of human-computer interactions is also shifting from simply improving individual devices to enhancing more connected activities and communications. In this featured talk, Jun Rekimoto explains how such pervasive connectivity based on advanced sensing technologies, and large-scale fusion of real and digital worlds, will change our physical space and what the user-interface challenges will be.

Jun Rekimoto received his BASc, MSc, and PhD in information science from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1984, 1986, and 1996, respectively. Since 1994, he has worked for Sony Computer Science Laboratories. In 1999, he formed, and has since directed, Sony CSL's Interaction Laboratory. Since 2007, he has been a professor in the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies at The University of Tokyo.

His research interests include human-computer interaction and computer-augmented environments. He invented various innovative interactive systems and sensing technologies, including NaviCam (a hand-held artificial-reality system), Pick-and-Drop (a direct-manipulation technique for inter-appliance computing), CyberCode (the world's first marker-based artificial-reality system), Augmented Surfaces, HoloWall, and SmartSkin (some of the earliest examples of multi-touch systems).

He has published more than 100 articles in the area of human-computer interaction in several conferences and journals, including ACM SIGCHI and UIST. He received the Multi-Media Grand Prix Technology Award from the Multi-Media Contents Association Japan in 1998, the iF Interaction Award in 2000, the Japan Inter-Design Award in 2003, and the iF Communication Design Award in 2005. In 2007, he was also elected to the ACM SIGCHI Academy.